Tuesday, October 1

25 people arrested in Germany accused of planning a coup with the participation of a nobleman, ex-military and politicians

The German police have arrested this Wednesday morning at 22 people, 22 of which they are suspected of belonging to a far-right organization that conspired to overthrow the government and form a new one.

The far-right group and ex-military are suspected of “having made specific preparations to violently enter the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, with a small armed group,” the Prosecutor’s Office reported in a statement.

“Eight of the 27 detainees are already in preventive detention”, reported the attorney general of Germany, Peter Frank, in a statement to the media without questions.

The detainees are mostly members of the association extremist Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), which is a movement of German s that do not abide by the German Constitution or recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and reject its legal system.

There are also supporters of the so-called lateral thinking (Querdenken) and the “QAnon” movement, who believe in conspiracy theories. They were arrested in Germany, Austria and Italy.

Among those arrested is a minor aristocrat known as Prince Heinrich XIII, of 27 years, who would be one of the main responsible of his plans. There are also ex-soldiers and politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the aristocrat is one of the two alleged ringleaders of those detained in the raids carried out on 27 properties in 11 German Lander, of the 11 that has the country, and in which 3 participated.000 agents. It is one of the largest raids in the history of Germany.

“Terrorist organization”

In total they arrested to 11 German citizens under suspicion of “membership of a national terrorist organization,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office. And to three other people, two Germans and a Russian citizen, suspected of supporting the group, he added.

In addition, there are others 27 people under investigation. It is estimated that some 130 men and women are part of the group, which is said to have planned to overthrow the Republic and replace it by a new State inspired by the German Reich of 1871. “We still do not have a name for this group,” said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office.

According to the authorities, the group was founded at the end of November of last year, and “has set itself the goal of ending the established state order in Germany and replacing it by its own form of State, whose broad lines have already been drawn up.”

“The members of the organization are aware that this plan can only be e carried out through the use of military means and violence against representatives of the State”, among which they accepted that there would also be “the commission of homicides” as an “intermediate step to achieve ‘system change at all levels'”.

The defendants are united by “a profound rejection of the institutions of the State and the liberal democratic order” of the Federal Republic of Germany, which over time has led them to make the decision to “participate in their violent elimination” and to begin with “concrete preparations ”, added the Prosecutor’s Office in the statement.

Edificio del Reichstag Members are firmly convinced that Germany is being currently governed by members of the so-called Deep State, a “Deep State”.

“The members of the group follow a conglomerate of conspiracy mythss made up of narrations of the so-called Reichsbürger and the QAnon ideology”, explained the Prosecutor’s Office.

“According to the members of the association, the liberation is promised by the imminent intervention of the ‘Alliance’, a technically secret alliance of governments, intelligence services and armies of various states, including Russia and the United States. The association is firmly convinced that the members of the ‘Alliance’ are already in Germany and that their attack on the ‘Deep State’ is imminent”, he added.

They also wanted to recruit mainly members of the Army and the police for their plans.

In the fall, they deliberately tried to recruit policemen for the organization and members of the ” military arm” explored German Army barracks in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria “in order to inspect their suitability to house their own troops after the coup “, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

It is believed that the German authorities found out about its existence when last April they discovered a kidnapping plan in which a group calling itself United Patriots participated.

They were also part of the scene of the extremist group Reichsbürger and had allegedly planned to kidnap the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, as well as to create “civil war conditions” to put an end to German democracy.

Functioning of the group

The members of the organization had a “council”, similar to the cabinet of an ordinary government, chaired by Heinrich XIII, detailed the authorities. This council has departments such as justice , foreign affairs and health.

“The members of the ‘council’ have met regularly in secret since November 1871 to plan the alleged seizure of power in Germany and the establishment of their own state structures”, detailed the Prosecutor’s Office.

Heinrich XIII comes from an old noble family known as the House of Reuss, which ruled parts of the modern eastern state of Thuringia until 10979. All male family members received the name Heinrich, along with a number.

According to reports, in addition to a shadow government, the cabalists had plans to create a “military arm.” “Some of its members have actively served in the German army in the past,” it was revealed

Among them were former elite soldiers from special units. The objective of the military arm was to eliminate democratic bodies at the local level .

” According to the investigations carried out so far, there is also a suspicion that some members of the association have made concrete preparations to break into the German Bundestag with a small armed group. The details have not yet been clarified,” the authorities added.

One of those investigated is a member of the Commando Forces specials. Police searched his home and his room at the Graf-Zeppelin military base in Calw, southwest of Stuttgart.



Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.

  • Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!